Sinking Islands? Tuvalu and Climate Change in the Sydney Morning Herald
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ISLANDS of the WORLD VIII International Conference “Changing Islands – Changing Worlds” 1-7 November 2004, Kinmen Island (Quemoy), Taiwan Sinking Islands? Tuvalu and Climate Change in the Sydney Morning Herald Carol Farbotko The University of Tasmania, Hobart, Australia Carol Farbotko, 26 Barnes Rd, Llandilo, NSW 2747, Australia Email: carolf0@utas.edu.au ABSTRACT Tuvalu is one of the islands considered by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change to be at the front-line of climate change impacts, due to its small physical size, low elevation and limited natural resources. As Tuvalu grapples with issues of sovereignty, sustainability and resilience raised by climate change imperatives, a major daily newspaper in Sydney, Australia has portrayed Tuvalu as vulnerable island paradise, unfortunate victim-state and tiny brave protester against international heavy-weights. The purpose of this study was to use thematic and content analysis to investigate the nature of the coverage of Tuvalu’s climate change challenges in The Sydney Morning Herald. The frequency of Tuvalu-related articles in the context of climate change over the period from January 1997 to January 2003 was assessed, and major themes associated with climate change issues faced by Tuvalu were identified. The study findings indicate that while Tuvalu featured infrequently in this newspaper, more than half of the articles and letters featuring Tuvalu mentioned it in relation to climate change issues. The most common themes depicted Tuvalu as vulnerable to climate change induced sea-level rise and the Tuvaluan people as exposed to the risk of becoming environmental refugees. As an institution of public culture where social and physical understandings of climate change imperatives in Tuvalu are interpreted and transformed, The Sydney Morning Herald contributes to a discourse that emphasises Tuvalu’s vulnerabilities, and marginalises its capacity for resilience. 2-2-B-1 207
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Introduction
Climate change debates crystallise in relation to Tuvalu. The ecological systems of
Tuvalu’s nine islands, and the socio-economic systems of its people, are facing
considerable climate change risks according to synthesis of climate change research
conducted by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The
possibility of sea level rise occurring in Tuvalu, in particular, has generated
considerable political and public debate. Participants in this debate frequently
appeal to the nature of international obligations of governments responsible for the
domestic emission of large amounts of greenhouse gases, and to the legitimacy and
efficacy of mitigation, adaptation and relocation response options for the
government and people of Tuvalu.
Many articles concerning Tuvalu and climate change have been published in
the international news media. The general public in countries outside Tuvalu have
limited direct contact with Tuvalu and its people. Television, radio, printed news
and internet sites are important locations of international public discourse on
climate change and Tuvalu. This paper is concerned with the role played by the
Australian news media in the construction of Tuvalu’s climate change imperatives.
My objectives are to investigate how Tuvalu and Tuvaluan people are represented
in the Sydney Morning Herald (SMH) in the context of climate change, and to
examine how response options are discursively positioned in this publication.
Gaining insights into how climate change issues are defined and addressed is
important for Tuvalu and other communities at risk from the adverse effects of
climate change.
Tuvalu
Tuvalu is a state of nine islands situated in Western Polynesia. Known as the Ellice
Islands until the 1970s, the Tuvaluan islands were declared a protectorate by Britain
in 1892. They were administratively amalgamated with the Micronesian Gilberts in
1915 (Macdonald 1975). Together the two island groups formed the Gilbert and
Ellice Islands Colony. This grouping was dissolved at the end of 1975 when the
Ellice Islanders’ desire for separation was realised and the country was renamed
Tuvalu. In 1978, Tuvalu achieved independence and in 2000 became a member of
the United Nations. Tuvalu has the meaning ‘group of eight’ and refers to the eight
islands that have long supported inhabitants. These islands are Funafuti,
Nanumanga, Nanumea, Niutao, Nui, Nukufetau, Nukulaelae and Vaitupu. Niulakita,
the ninth in the group, was not settled permanently until colonial powers acquired it
to act as a safety valve for the then very crowded island of Niutao (Goldsmith 2002).
The islands are the surface expressions of carbonate deposits on extinct
volcanic mounds, forming a roughly linear archipelago in the central Pacific
(Rodgers 1991). Five of the nine islands that today make up the Tuvalu group have
been characterised by McLean and Hosking (1991) as true atolls, with a peripheral
ring-shaped reef surrounding a lagoon (Funafuti, Nanumea, Nui, Nukufetau, and
Nukulaelae). Three islands are of reef patch form, with small land-enclosed ponds
and land areas that cover large portions of the available reef platform (Nanumaga,
Niulakita and Niutao). One island has composite characteristics of the atoll and reef
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patch forms (Vaitupu). The climate is hot with high humidity. Tropical cyclones are
infrequent but a few have caused considerable damage and drought periodically
occurs (Rodgers 1991). Terrestrial vegetation and animal life is limited in diversity
but marine life is rich and varied.
In the middle of 2004, Tuvalu’s population count was estimated to be 9,600
according to the most recent census (undertaken in 2002). Population density is high
by Oceanic standards, at 369 people per square kilometre and 47 per cent of the
population was counted as urban at the census (Secretariat of the Pacific
Community 2004). Funafuti, the administrative centre, is more densely populated
than the other islands, resulting mostly from inter-island migration into Funafuti
(Sem et al. 1996). Life expectancy is 61.7 for males and 65.1 for females 1
(Secretariat of the Pacific Community 2004). There is free and universal access to
health and basic education services. Male and female adult literacy is 95 per cent.
Combined gross school enrolments are 74 per cent for males and 75 per cent for
females. Eighty five per cent of the population has access to safe water and 49 per
cent has access to sanitation, based on World Health Organisation Estimates from
1995 and 1997 (UNDP 1999). The land tenure system operates through extended
family groups and is supported by legislation, providing access to subsistence
resources (Knapman et al. 2002). According to Mellor (2003), the subsistence
sector continues to play a significant role in Tuvalu’s economy, providing
employment opportunities that complement cash employment. As a result,
conventional unemployment is almost non-existent in Tuvalu (Mellor 2003).
The Tuvaluan economy is based on an eclectic mixture of government ventures
in global markets (such as the sale of the commercially attractive Dot TV internet
domain), remittances from Tuvaluan workers (particularly commercial seamen), aid
and subsistence production (Connell 1999; Mellor 2003). The Tuvalu Trust Fund is
a considerable source of financial support to the Tuvaluan government. It was
established in 1987 with contributions from several donor countries and Tuvalu
itself. The real capital value of this fund is maintained, with market-driven returns
providing revenue in some years (Mellor 2003).
Tuvalu has limited export earnings. Copra exports once made a small
contribution to the economy but these ceased when copra prices were low on world
markets in the early 1990s (Connell 1999). Tuvalu’s exclusive economic zone sea
territory has been identified as a valuable sustainable fishing resource (Knapman et
al. 2002). However, commercial exports of fish have been limited and some
external appraisals of Tuvalu’s economy have been pessimistic about the likely
success of an export fishing industry being established (Knapman et al. 2002;
Mellor 2003).
Tuvalu and climate change
The foregoing brief overview of Tuvalu’s social and economic characteristics
places my study in context. Tuvalu is a young nation, grappling with its
development and negotiating its path through the terrain of globalisation. Tuvaluans
1
Reference period for life expectancy is 1997-2002
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face many challenges; here my focus is on the challenge presented by climate
change. The immediate past Prime Minister, Saufatu Sopoanga has spoken of the
threat presented by climate change to Tuvalu as follows:
We live in constant fear of the adverse impacts of climate change. For a
coral atoll nation, sea level rise and more severe weather events loom as a
growing threat to our entire population. The threat is real and serious
(Sopoanga 2003).
In its summary of research into climate change impacts, the IPCC indicates
that small island states such as Tuvalu are likely to face exacerbated coastal erosion
and land loss, increased flooding, increased soil salinization and saltwater intrusion
into groundwater, increased frequency of coral bleaching in reef systems and other
impacts on bio-physical systems (IPCC 2001). According to a vulnerability
assessment conducted by Sem et al. (1996), Tuvalu’s vulnerability to extreme
weather events could be exacerbated by climate change and variability, and changes
in sea levels.
Any effects of climate change in Tuvalu will occur in bio-physical and social
systems already under pressure from population growth and high population density,
such as increased building activity on Funafuti, increased internal migration to
Funafuti (with an associated increased demand for services and employment), and
inadequate waste management systems (Connell 1999; Tesfaghiorghis 1994;
Zurick 1995). Although fishing and agricultural livelihoods in Tuvalu may prove to
be resilient to weather extremes and climate variability, questions of how adaptation
to climate change will occur in Tuvalu are being raised by the Tuvaluan
Government, by different development and environmental organisations, and by
members of the research community (Barnett and Adger 2001; Niuatui 1991; NSSD
2004; Ralston et al. 2004; Sopoanga 2003; United Nations Department of Public
Information 2004).
In its National Summit on Sustainable Development, 2 the Tuvaluan
government, Island Council Presidents, Island Head Chiefs, and private and
community sector representatives articulated a need to introduce national climate
change adaptation and mitigation strategies (Resolution Seven). In particular, there
are aims to ‘promote awareness on adaptation strategies at all levels’ and to
‘increase awareness on the issue of sea level rise and climate change’ (NSSD 2004,
11). This focus on adaptation in formal policy is one element of the Tuvaluan
government’s stance on climate change. Government representatives have also been
vocal advocates of mitigation in forums such as the United Nations, the United
Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (FCCC) Conference of Parties,
and the Pacific Forum, articulating support of the United Nations FCCC and the
Kyoto Protocol, and expressing disappointment in those countries that do not show
similar support. Tuvaluan leaders have also lobbied the Australian and New
Zealand governments for migration opportunities. In the past, Tuvaluan leaders
have sought migration opportunities for workers to travel abroad and send
2
The National Summit on Sustainable Development was held in June-July 2004. The outcomes of
the Summit will provide a basis for a national development strategy, currently being prepared for
approval by Parliament in November.
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remittances home (Connell 2003). It is unclear the extent to which labour interests
have been a motivating factor behind more recent attempts by the Tuvaluan
government to gain increased migration opportunities in Australia and New Zealand,
which have been reported in the news media as motivated by risks posed by rising
sea levels. The government is exploring ways to advance mitigation, adaptation and
possibly relocation strategies. Tuvaluan leaders are emphasising a significant role
for developed countries in helping them to achieve these objectives.
Tuvalu and climate change discourse
Various discourses relate to the uptake of climate change mitigation and adaptation
strategies with which Tuvaluans are most concerned. Connell (2003, 98) identifies a
‘garbage can’ discourse by which diverse environmental changes on Tuvalu are
attributed to climate change, while other environmental problems (such as
increasing urbanisation) are neglected. Barnett and Adger (2001) have identified as
potentially problematic the framing of climate change impacts on atoll states such
as Tuvalu in terms of vulnerability, highlighting loss of confidence in future
sustainability by aid agencies, foreign investors, and atoll states themselves.
The tension between global and non-global climate change imperatives has
been examined from a discourse analytic perspective by Adger et al. (2001). They
consider that climate change imperatives are illegible to social processes at non-
global scales, when climate change is framed as a global issue with impacts on the
international economy and requiring international action. In particular, they raise
the concern that localised adaptation to climate change is marginalised by two
dominant discourses. These are a managerial discourse and a moral discourse with
underpinnings in concerns about profligacy. Adger et al. (2001) also identify an
established discourse of denial that is somewhat influential in questioning climate
change knowledge by appealing to apparent inconsistencies in empirical evidence.
This denial discourse posits that either climate change is not scientifically provable
or that it is not a serious issue.
According to the managerial discourse, which draws authority from science,
institutional failure and population growth are the major contributors to climate
change. The managerial discourse suggests that the most appropriate level for action
to be taken is the international arena. One of the key concerns raised in this
discourse is with correcting deficiencies in fossil fuel markets. It thus supports
economic mechanisms such as the Kyoto Protocol. Another concern of the
managerial discourse is with population growth, which is largely a characteristic of
developing world demographics. This discourse portrays developing countries as
both bearing a significant burden of responsibility for population issues and as
injured parties in the context of climate change’s major impacts. The managerial
discourse advocates a precautionary approach to managing the climate change
problem (Adger et al. 2001). The profligacy or moral discourse diagnoses over-
consumption as the most significant factor contributing to climate change, and
maintains that this issue needs to be addressed to prevent a climate change
catastrophe. Industrialised countries are thus identified as the main culprits of
climate change, with authority drawn from both science and appeals to morality.
The moral discourse proposes a more radical set of solutions than the managerial
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discourse, advocating ‘preventative action and a new economic order’ (Adger et al.
2001, 700). Both discourses emphasize the fragility of communities that depend on
natural resources, and highlight their disempowerment, particularly those in
developing countries (Adger et al. 2001).
The news media is one (of many) entry points into the empirical workings of
discourse (van Dijk 1988). Being one of today’s most complex and prominent
environmental issues, climate change is the subject of considerable dispute, or
‘discursive struggle’ (Jørgensen and Phillips 2002, 6) and is regularly represented in
the news media. News media texts are sites of public culture where social and
physical understandings of climate change are interpreted and transformed. As
Trumbo (1996, 270) puts it, ‘the media, in this view, provide a series of arenas in
which symbolic contests are carried out among competing sponsors of meaning.’
A study by Boykoff and Boykoff (2004) has made some inroads into analysing
climate change in the news as discourse. They found that contesting discourses of
climate change could be identified in the prestige newspapers of the United States
on the one hand and among the research community on the other. Their finding was
based on investigations into the journalistic norm of balance, which accorded to
minority discourses that denied the existence or importance of climate change
significance equal to the scientific consensus articulated by members of research
institutions such as the IPCC. Boykoff and Boykoff (2004) interpreted the point of
disconnection between scientific and news media discourses of climate change as
contributing to the lack of agreement at the international level on action concerning
climate change imperatives. They conclude that, despite strong findings by the
IPCC on anthropogenic interference with climate processes, the message of the
IPCC has not been translated by the media into the public arena nor interpreted by
the public as salient.
Comparing the discourses in Boykoff and Boykoff’s (2004) study with those of
Adger et al. (2001), it becomes apparent that climate change discourses operate at
many levels and are identifiable in many communicative vehicles. Indeed, any
analysis of discourse will necessarily be a stylised account of how discourses
intersect, overlap and redefine each other, given the complexity of discursive
relations.
The discourses discussed above, and their implications for the socio-ecological
systems of Tuvalu, warrant investigation. I am undertaking an analysis of climate
change discourses and their meanings for Tuvalu for my doctoral research. This
paper focussing on the SMH represents a preliminary study. The larger project aims
to advance understanding of the means by which risks, uncertainties and
complexities associated with climate change expertise travel back and forth across
the domains of governance, research and the media and to examine associated
implications for socio-ecological resilience. This aim will be achieved by
undertaking an analysis of discourses associated with climate change impacts in
Tuvalu and investigating how Tuvaluans perceive risks for their islands in the
context of climate change. The aim in this paper is to investigate how Tuvalu,
Tuvaluan people and climate change are represented in the SMH, and to examine
how response options are discursively positioned in that particular publication.
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Sydney Morning Herald data
The SMH is a major ‘daily’ (Monday to Saturday) newspaper published in Sydney,
Australia. It is owned by John Fairfax Holdings. In March 2004 it had a weekday
circulation of 221,022 and a Saturday circulation of 375,541 according to Audit
Bureau of Circulation figures (Herald Adcentre 2004a). The SMH is read mainly by
professionals/managers and white collar workers (Herald Adcentre 2004b; Herald
Adcentre 2004c).
Sydney is one of only two cities in Australia with more than one major daily
newspaper. The other major newspaper in Sydney is The Daily Telegraph, which in
2004 had a weekday circulation of 409,000 and a Saturday circulation of 345,000
(News Medianet 2004). There is also a national daily newspaper, The Australian,
which in March 2004 had a weekday circulation 131,000 and a weekend circulation
of 300,000 (News Medianet 2004). Both The Daily Telegraph and The Australian
are owned by News Limited.
While many readers of the SMH will obtain news information from several
sources such as radio and television news services, other newspapers, magazines
and internet sites, the circulation figures indicate that the SMH is an important
source of news and public information in Australia. The newspaper seeks to
demonstrate its legitimacy as a news source through its masthead, stating that it has
been published since 1831 and has numbered more than 52,000 editions in that time.
In this study I have examined the textual elements of news and not audience
response. The SMH electronic archive was searched for articles, comments and
letters mentioning Tuvalu for the period beginning 1st January 1997 and ending 1st
January 2003. The study period was chosen to coincide with the lead-up to the third
Conference of Parties negotiations under the United Nations FCCC that culminated
in the as-yet unratified Kyoto Protocol, and continuing negotiations in subsequent
years. During that time the Oceanic island states engaged in unsuccessful
negotiations with Australia in the context of the South Pacific Forum to commit to
reduced greenhouse gas emissions. I included in this study news articles, comments
and letters in order to help trace the discourse of climate change issues associated
with Tuvalu as fully as possible. The total number of these texts identified by
searching the electronic archive was 67. The texts were manually examined to
include only those that mentioned Tuvalu in the context of climate change or sea
level rise or both. I identified 34 texts where appeals to climate change issues
associated with Tuvalu were made, either explicitly or implicitly3.
Method
My investigation into Tuvalu and climate change discourse in the news media was
informed by environmental discourse studies conducted by Hajer (1995), Dryzek
(1997) and Adger el al. (2001). More specifically, my methodology treats texts
(written and spoken language) as ‘constructions of the world oriented towards social
action’ (Jørgensen and Phillips 2002, 96). Discourse analysis is the study of the
3
Implicit appeals were mainly of the type that referred to Tuvalu as facing threats such as sinking or
submersion without explicit mention of climate change or sea level rise.
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rhetorical organisation of texts, investigating how constructions of the world are
designed so they appear as stable facts and how alternatives are undermined.
My analysis followed a methodological eclectic that probed the texts using
qualitative, thematic analysis. I explored how accounts of Tuvalu and climate
change were discursively organized and constructed, and what discursive effects
they accomplished. Following Adger et al. (2001), I explored discursive patterns in
the selected news texts by identifying any archetype villains and victims. I
considered how characters and story-lines formed constructions of the climate
change problem for Tuvalu, paying particular attention to narrative silences and
partial, simplified and selective representations (Hubbard et al. 2002). Turning to
rhetorical devices, I investigated whether narrative choices privileged drama over
balanced representation.
Analysis: representations of Tuvalu in the Sydney Morning Herald
My analysis sought to identify how a relationship between Tuvalu and climate
change was constructed in the SMH. There are many possible ways in which the
meaning of climate change in Tuvalu can be constructed, not only in the media but
in research and political dialogue. For some, climate change is a scientifically
identified phenomenon, posing risks to ecological and human systems. This
construction supports further commitment from researchers and policy-makers,
particularly in the quantification of risk. It also cites the scientific consensus that
anthropogenic climate change is a reality. The construction pays attention to sea
level rise and to other possible impacts of climate change in Tuvalu, canvassing
various policy options to respond to a range of climate change risks. For example,
Lewis (1989, 273) states that a comprehensive strategy is needed to manage risks
presented by possible sea level rise and that ‘matters of long-term consequence
would best be considered when short-term threats have been accommodated.’
Another construction questions the existence of threats Tuvalu faces from
climate change, particularly sea level rise, appealing to research to support its
claims. For example, Baliunas and Soon (2002, 44) in a viewpoint article pose the
question ‘is Tuvalu really sinking?’ and appeal to the authority of the director of
Australia’s National Tidal Facility who states ‘there is no indication based on
observations that sea level rise is accelerating.’ The academic opinion piece by
Eschenbach (2004, 538) asserts that ‘it is not necessary to invoke global warming or
rising sea levels to explain the sudden loss of an atoll through cyclone driven
erosion….it is part of the natural cycle of the ocean.’
Neither of these possible constructions, however, is a central theme of the
news texts analysed in this study. Rather, as I will demonstrate, the texts portray
climate change in Tuvalu as an issue concerning the imminent creation of
environmental refugees from the effects of sea level rise, and the moral
consequences of this problem for the international community. This construction
tends to take inundation of Tuvalu by rising seas as given. The SMH texts made
appeals to a discourse that constructs the climate change problem as leading to
abandonment of the islands with the only feasible solution being a flow of
environmental refugees into less vulnerable countries such as Australia. Yet, there is
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no intrinsic connection between climate change and the creation of environmental
refugees. By presenting the issue in these terms, the SMH reduces the salience of
other possible constructions of climate change, discursively limiting avenues for
dealing with the problem. The construction of such a climate change reality for
Tuvalu in the SMH was accomplished by the inclusion (and exclusion) of certain
content as well as by the use of rhetorical devices. The following six extracts will be
discussed:
Extract 1: SMH, 19th July 2001, p1, David Wroe ‘Australia refuses to throw
lifeline to drowning Tuvalu’
1. The tiny South Pacific nation of Tuvalu which faces being submerged
by rising sea levels has pleaded with Australia to help resettle its
11,000 citizens, but it has been given short shrift.
2. While Western governments argue in Bonn this week about the future
of the Kyoto protocol on global warming, the Tuvaluan Government is
considering abandoning the islands its people have lived on for
thousands of years.
3. As their homeland slowly disappears beneath their feet, Tuvalu has
approached Australia and New Zealand about resettlement, believing
the nation will be uninhabitable within three decades.
Extract 2: SMH, 30th January 1999, Letters p11, John Murray
1. It is indeed a pity that the Government appears to have given short shrift
to the request from the tiny nation of Tuvalu to facilitate the future
migration of its people in anticipation of its inevitable submersion due to
the greenhouse effect caused by distant, wealthier, polluting countries.
Extract 3: SMH, 30th January 1999, Spectrum p7, Neer Korn ‘High Net
Wealth’
1. There is one pressing problem that no amount of money can solve. The
nation’s highest point is a mere 4.5 metres above sea level.
2. In an impassioned speech to the global warming conference in Buenos
Aires late last year, the Prime Minister said: “We are…the most
vulnerable of the most vulnerable of countries to the effect of sea-level
rise.”
3. It is a subject Paeniu raises at every opportunity. “The effects of climate
change, I can tell you, are for real and a matter of life and death for us,
inhabitants of these low-lying islands. We would be gone even before
we had a chance to prove to the developed countries the consequences of
their actions.”
Extract 4: SMH, 18th February 2000, p8, Mark Riley ‘Tiny Islands Join UN
with a Sinking Feeling’
1. With a highest land point of 4.5 metres above sea level, this slice of
Pacific paradise is in imminent peril of becoming a paradise lost to
global warming.
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2. In the words of the immediate past prime minister of Tuvalu, Mr
Bikenibeu Paeniu: “We are the most vulnerable of the most vulnerable
of countries to the effect of sea-level rise”.
3. “Climate change” does not simply suggest the onset of cloudy weather to
the 10,588 Tuvaluans; it is a matter of life and death.
Extract 5: SMH, 4th March 2002, p2, Craig Skehan ‘Tuvalu disappointed by
greenhouse stance’
1. The Prime Minister of the low-lying atoll nation of Tuvalu, Koloa
Talake, said yesterday he was sad and disappointed over what he saw as
Australia moving further away from supporting binding international
measures to combat rising ocean levels.
2. “What will happen to all my 12,000 people?” he said. “The environment
is being damaged by global warming which is giving rise to higher sea
levels”.
Extract 6: SMH, 20th September 1997, p9, Craig Skehan ‘Howard Fails to
Head Off Bid on Greenhouse Emissions’
1. Australia failed yesterday to head off a bid by atoll nations to commit the
annual South Pacific Forum to supporting binding global greenhouse gas
emission cuts by developed countries.
2. Mr Howard dug his heels in and refused to budge.
One of the most salient features of the news texts in this study is their silence
on adaptation to climate change impacts, their dismissal of prospects for effective
mitigation and their construction of relocation as the only response option for
Tuvaluans. Adaptation in particular is viewed by many researchers and by the
Tuvaluan Government as being an essential component of a threatened
community’s response to climate change (Barnett 2001; Huq et al. 2003; IPCC 2001;
NSSD 2004, 11). Yet the SMH allows little capacity for discussion of possible
adaptation measures in Tuvalu because of the direct causal linkages that are
constructed between climate change, long term sea level rise and abandonment of
islands.
These linkages are established in several ways. Sea level rise is represented as
not only an extremely serious concern, ‘a matter of life and death’ (Extracts 3.3 and
4.3) which renders other climate change impacts significantly less salient, but as
inherently linked to resettlement of the population. The fact that Tuvalu is ‘a mere
4.5 metres above sea level’ is a problem that ‘no amount of money can solve’
(Extract 3.1). The dramatic vision of a nation ‘being submerged by rising sea levels’
(Extract 1.1) is employed in such a way that for Tuvaluans, approaching ‘Australia
and New Zealand about resettlement’ is represented as the only possible response
to climate change as ‘their homeland slowly disappears beneath their feet’ (Extract
1.3). The consequences of sea level rise are represented as inevitable loss of land
and subsequent population displacement.
The adverse effects of climate change are identified in relation to Tuvalu in a
way that is simplified and distorted. Climate change related concerns about drought
and short-term variations in sea level due to extreme events, El Nino Southern
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Oscillation, changes in wind and regular high tides, which are expected to impact on
groundwater salinity and affect crops are mentioned rarely in the news texts in this
study. In effect, short-term sea level rise and drought become much-diminished
issues for Tuvalu in the SMH, while long-term sea level rise receives magnified
attention. With the wider host of climate change impacts receiving scant attention
and the dramatic and hence more newsworthy images of Tuvalu in ‘imminent peril’
(Extract 4.1) from sea levels rising and facing ‘inevitable submersion due to the
greenhouse effect’ (Extract 2.1) being given precedence in the news texts,
submersion becomes an almost inevitable event, qualified as likely to happen very
slowly only in some instances. The newsworthiness of such images is highlighted in
the headlines that depict Tuvalu as ‘drowning’ (Extract 1) and ‘sinking’ (Extract 4).
Moreover, by repeatedly describing Tuvalu as ‘low-lying’ (Extracts 3.3 and 5.1)
and ‘tiny’ (Extracts 1.1 and 2.1), vulnerability to sea level rise is discursively
exacerbated. When images of submersion are juxtaposed with stereotypical
descriptions of Tuvalu as an island paradise, there is a heightened sense of loss:
‘this slice of Pacific paradise is in imminent peril of becoming a paradise lost to
global warming’ (Extract 4.1).
On the 19th July 2001, the front page of the SMH contained the headline
‘Australia refuses to throw lifeline to drowning Tuvalu’ (Extract 1). The report
concerned the negotiation of migration rights for Tuvaluans into Australia, which
the Tuvaluan government had sought from the Australian government. It was
reported that ‘the Tuvaluan Government is considering abandoning the islands its
people have lived on for thousands of years’ (Extract 1.2). Four years earlier, the
Tuvalu Statement presented by Toaripi Lauti of Tuvalu’s Prime Ministerial Special
Envoy On Climate Change, as part of a speech to the United Nations FCCC -
Conference Of Parties 3, contained the following statement:
Mr President, there is nowhere else on earth that can substitute for our
God-given homeland in Tuvalu. The option of relocation as mooted by some
countries therefore is utterly insensitive and irresponsible (Lauti 1997).
This speech was not reported in the SMH, illustrating how news stories about
Tuvalu in the SMH at times represent only a partial account of the ways in which
Tuvalu is grappling with climate change challenges to sustainability and resilience.
In contrast to Toaripi Lauti’s firm stance expressing his desire to remain in his
homeland in the above quotation, the Tuvaluan leaders are represented in the SMH
news texts as feeling a sense of hopelessness against the impacts of climate change
and sadness at the lack of help they receive from other countries. Their voices are
heard in the news texts pleading with the Australian government (Extract 1.1), and
negotiating with other governments such as New Zealand (Extract 1.3), to assist
them by committing to the reduction of greenhouse gases and by granting their
people migration rights. A former Prime Minister, Bikenibeu Paeniu, was twice
quoted as saying ‘we are the most vulnerable of the most vulnerable of countries to
the effect of sea level rise’ (Extracts 3.2 and 4.2). Another former Prime Minister,
Koloa Talake, was quoted as saying ‘What will happen to all of my 12,000 people?’
(Extract 5.2). As a rhetorical device, the presence of Tuvaluan leaders’ voices
expressing their sense of hopelessness adds credibility to the claims that Tuvalu is
extremely vulnerable to sea level rise and that its population faces the necessity of
abandoning their island homes. This credibility is particularly salient when strong
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statements valuing the Tuvaluan islands, such as Lauti’s above, are silenced. It is
not surprising that the Tuvaluan leaders are not heard to speak of adaptation
measures, or for other sources to voice their understanding of adaptation. For them
to do so would make little sense in terms of how the discursive boundaries have
been constructed in this context.
The construction of Tuvaluan leaders as victims of climate change is achieved
by characterising them as powerless, pleading and desperate, but they are also
represented as making brave protests against much more powerful nations. For
example, one Tuvaluan Prime Minister makes ‘an impassioned speech to the global
warming conference in Buenos Aires’ (Extract 3.2) and another expresses
disappointment in Australia for ‘moving further away from supporting binding
international measures to combat rising ocean levels’ (Extract 5.1). These
representations are made in such a way that the powerlessness of Tuvaluan leaders
in the international negotiating arena, and the unlikely success of mitigation options,
is emphasised. The former Prime Minister Bikenibeu Paeniu, for example, warns
that the Tuvaluan population ‘would be gone before we had a chance to prove to the
developed countries the consequences of their actions’ (Extract 3.3). Australian
leaders are largely represented as disobliging and unsympathetic towards Tuvalu.
John Howard, Australia’s Prime Minister, and other government leaders are
portrayed as insensitive to the plight of environmental refugees and stubborn in
their refusal to enter into a dialogue with Tuvalu on the issue of migration rights
into Australia. John Howard ‘dug his heels in and refused to budge’ (Extract 6.2)
when the leaders of Pacific states including Tuvalu urged Australia to curb
greenhouse gas emissions. Australian policy on refugees in general and Tuvalu in
particular is condemned for lacking compassion. Australia’s unhelpful role is
further highlighted by the sense of irony with which it is noted in several of the
texts examined that Australia asked Tuvalu to detain refugees from other parts of
the world seeking asylum in Australia as part of the Australian government’s
‘Pacific Solution’ (discussed below), yet would not consider accepting Tuvaluans as
migrants (Nguyen 2002; Skehan and Clennell 2001).
The Australian context
This study has focussed on only a limited number of articles, from one publication
and for a selected period of time. As such it is only a limited analysis of the wider
discursive context that is associated with Tuvalu’s climate change imperatives.
Importantly, Tuvalu has not received a great deal of coverage in the SMH,
indicating its marginal importance in the Australian news media. It is interesting to
note, in illustration, that there was no mention, to my knowledge, of the vote of no
confidence in the Tuvaluan parliament against Prime Minister Sopoanga on 25th
August 2004. More than half of the news texts during the period from 1st January
1997 to 1st January 2003 which mentioned Tuvalu, however, included reference to
Tuvalu and climate change. The unusual problem, constructed as one of a country
disappearing under rising sea levels, to some extent makes its salience as a news
issue reasonably pronounced. The sense of impending crisis, moreover, both for
Tuvaluans and for the countries they enter as environmental refugees, is a dramatic
event that contributes to compelling news stories.
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While the focus of this article has been on news texts and not audience
reception, it is worthwhile considering briefly the context in which the news texts
analysed in this study are located. Few Australians would have direct experience of
Tuvalu, so any perceptions they have of this country are likely to at least be
partially influenced by the media. Australians are also likely to bring to their
experience of news accounts of Tuvalu their own versions of refugee issues. The
reception of refugees and other immigrants in Australia has been a prominent
political and media issue in the last few years, most particularly following the
Tampa incident, the September 11 terrorist attacks in the United States, and the
‘children overboard’ affair in 2001 (Klocker and Dunn 2003; Slattery 2003). The
Tampa was a Norwegian vessel whose captain rescued asylum-seekers, mainly from
Afghanistan, from a boat that was in trouble in Australian waters. The Australian
government refused to accept the asylum-seekers. The ‘children overboard’ affair
involved the Australian Prime Minister and senior ministers accusing Iraqi asylum
seekers of throwing children overboard when they were intercepted by the navy in a
boat near Christmas Island. The veracity of the ‘children overboard’ accusations has
since been discounted, but there has ensued much political debate on the Australian
government’s border protection and its policy of detaining asylum-seekers until
their claims are processed. The Pacific Solution mentioned above established
Australian immigration processing centres in locations outside Australia, for
example on Nauru. Given this highly politicized context, many Australians have
strong views on the ways in which refugees should be received. Although not as
prominent, climate change (particularly Kyoto Protocol negotiations), as well as
Pacific relations are also political issues in Australia and feature regularly in the
media.
This contextual location is important because representations of Tuvalu in the
SMH are bound up in the political climate. Indeed, there were 19 articles
concerning Tuvalu and climate change in 2001, many of which focussed on the
Tuvaluans as refugees. That was the same year as the Tampa incident and the
‘children overboard’ affair, a time when border policy politics was pronounced in
public discourse. The number compared to two articles in 1999, three in 2000 and
seven in 2002.
Conclusion
By constructing Tuvalu’s climate change imperatives in terms of imminent sea level
rise and the creation of environmental refugees, the SMH displays many elements
of the moral discourse identified by Adger et al. (2001). The perpetrators of climate
change are the industrialised governments, with Australia singled out as particularly
harsh given its situation as one of Tuvalu’s most powerful neighbours. Tuvalu, on
the other hand, is a developing country portrayed as a victim-state that is vulnerable
to the effects of climate change-induced sea level rise. Throughout the news texts
analysed, there was consistent appeal to morality that reinforced these roles. The
emphasis was on Australia immorally contributing to the severe climate change
impacts faced by Tuvalu, and more significantly, the vulnerability of Tuvalu to loss
of land through sea level rise. In this case, Tuvalu is seen to be an injured party in
the context of the Australia’s unsympathetic border policies.
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If Tuvalu’s future is constituted as particularly bleak by appeals to the risk of
long-term sea level rise, vulnerability to climate change becomes bound up with
notions of helplessness. This rhetorical construction of Tuvalu’s future has political
salience, silencing other constructions that emphasise a potentially significant
capacity for resilience on the part of Tuvaluans who have ‘been able to fashion
vibrant communities’ on islands with environments typically described as marginal
and resource-poor (Sem et al. 1996, 111).
The concerns that are raised from this discourse analysis are thus: what impact
might the emphasis on Tuvalu’s vulnerabilities be for Tuvalu both in terms of its
own capacity to respond to climate change imperatives and in terms of its
sustainability more broadly? These questions resonate with implications for atoll
states such as Tuvalu that might result from a doomsday discourse emphasising
long-term sea level rise and relocation in favour of a broader sweep of adaptation
and mitigation measures that advance sustainability imperatives (Barnett and Adger
2001). In other words, does a vulnerability discourse reduce Tuvalu’s resilience in
the face of climate change, development and sustainability imperatives? This
preliminary study does not address this important question, but it does identify a
discourse in the SMH that marginalises Tuvalu’s capacity for resilience by
emphasizing its vulnerabilities.
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